The invention is directed to a thumb protector as an integral part of a lacrosse protective glove or other type of sports glove, or for use as a separate appliance in conjunction with a protective glove.
In contact sports, such as lacrosse, hockey, etc., protective gear is necessary to protect players from the impact of hand-held sticks and hard objects such as the puck in hockey or the hard solid rubber ball in lacrosse. Padded gloves, for instance, may be used to protect the hands against stick strikes and other severe impacts such as impact from a ball. The goalie in lacrosse, for example, because of the manner in which he must hold his stick in order to protect the goal, is especially vulnerable to impact to the tip of his thumb from a ball which is driven toward him as the result of an attacking shot on the goal. Such impact, wherein the force of impact is in a direction substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the thumb, is not adequately protected against by the current state of the art. Consequently, injuries such as a broken, split, or fractured thumb commonly result. Prior art protective gear designed to prevent hand injuries typically comprises a glove with finger stalls for the individual fingers of the hand and impact-protective padding, and may utilize rigid, impact-resistant elements as additional protection. However, nothing in the prior art appears to address the prevention of the kind of injuries to the thumb described above.
Rigid or stiffening protective elements incorporated into gloves to protect the digits of the hand have been described in the prior art. Typical of thumb protective structures are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,626,515 to Murray. Murray describes a protector for the back of a hockey glove including a thumb guard made of a rigid material. The thumb guard resembles a flattened shell and extends over a back portion of the thumb from the wrist to the tip of the thumb without anywhere enclosing the thumb. With this arrangement, while the side of the thumb is protected, coverage by the rigid material does not extend to the tip of the thumb, leaving it exposed to blows directed along an axis substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the thumb.
A second example of prior art concerned with thumb protection is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,137,572 to Jansson et al. Jansson et al. describe a protective glove including thumb protection comprising a protective strip of hard and relatively stiff material incorporated into padding in the glove along the outer side of the thumb. The protective strip extends from the top of the thumb along an outside region of the thumb to a cuff of the protective glove located in the wrist area. The protective strip is relatively thin and flat and, as such, is adapted as reinforcement for the associated padding, rather than acting to directly protect the thumb from impact, or, more particularly, from impact to the tip of the thumb directed along an axis substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the thumb.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,703 to Brine et al. discloses a protective athletic glove for contact stick sports. The invention includes a thumb protector constructed of a stiff, impact-resistant material. The thumb protector includes two jointed segments resembling a flattened shell and overlying the outside of the thumb without anywhere enclosing the thumb. In particular, coverage by the impact-resistant material does not extend to the tip of the thumb, leaving it exposed to blows directed along an axis substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the thumb.
Other prior art devices are similar to those discussed above in that they provide thumb protection comprising a rigid material cupping, or overlying, the outer part of the thumb without anywhere enclosing the thumb. Coverage by the rigid material does not extend to the tip of the thumb, leaving it exposed to blows directed along an axis substantially parallel to a longitudinal axis of the thumb. Thus, nothing in the prior art appears to address the specific injury discussed earlier, wherein, in particular, goalies in a lacrosse game are especially vulnerable to impact to the tips of their thumbs as they attempt to protect the goal.